The Legend of Zelda: Return to Koholint
by Faethin
Summary: When Links finds himself washed ashore to Koholint again, the hope of finding Marin is also lit again. But the woman who befriends him may have darker purposes. 'And you will find, while in the wind, something that you lost.' S. Nicks.
1. Prologue

Oh, there is a difference, alright, between being wide awake and just awakened, just as there is a difference between falling for her and liking her. Perhaps a dream is truer than most would love to yield, or perhaps there is no such thing as a dream and there are only different places with more that just miles between them. I know there is a place were I can go when I feel saddened, it became mine a long ago, since I happened to learn the difference between falling for her and liking her, and I am sure that I was wide awake, never sleeping, when I learnt it. Of course, I can never actually be wide awake in that place anymore, but, perhaps, that is the difference of being just awakened.

The sand, though, feels harsh, like little blades all over my face, and I can smell the same air I smelt so long ago, at a certain time, at a certain place where I met her, and the certain place where I left her. Is it called leaving, though, when we both leave? I left her, but she also left me, perhaps unwillingly, but she did, and so did I, and something within me tells me that there is also a difference between leaving someone and parting with somebody. I still feel my blade beside me, and I carried not any shield to lose this time. Would I happen to dream that yet again she kneels besides me, trying to wake me?

But, island though it is, I feel a bit of cold about me, and the water is not warm anymore. Noon, perhaps. I must get up.

Lo! There it is! But it is there no more, the egg, the palace, its resting place. I see an empty nest were there once lay its bed, this island's very being, I see the summit. I once climbed the mountain, full of foul creatures and flowing streams, and beheld the sea from atop. I remember the fear of returning to it, I remember it so well because I knew that in the end what I would do would put an end to all, to the village, to the wood, to the swamp, to the very mountain and, surely, to her. I wept out of joy when I saw that it had not been so.

I hear a voice, a singing voice, and after my heart has calmed down from beating like a drum and I have yielded to knowing that I am a fool beyond healing, I turn to see whose fair song it is. There is a woman, sitting on a rock, singing a beautiful song, but I see that the likeness I had seen in her at first has come chiefly from my own mind, like a ghost that fell out of it and into her body and voice, as if my own eyes had her like the light out of a lamp. It almost hurts me, and, cursed be myself, my eyes become misty at the sight.

As I walk up to her, I hear more clearly what she sings, and I think, almost smiling, that perhaps she is not wrong at all:

_And you will find while in the wind_

_Something that you lost_

_The dream was never over_

_The dream was only lost_


	2. The Castaway

**The Legend of Zelda: Return to Koholint**

Still, after having met and having become friends, Sara would not tell him anything she did not know, and between the miles that lay before them, on the way back to Mabe they learnt that there would never be any love over their friendship. That gave him a feeling of safety, that there would not be anyone else besides the one he was looking for. And even though the same creatures that crept across the beach were yet there, ready to bring harm to anybody that would come nearby, their short journey was one of great laughter and light hearts, even if the way he had returned to the island was still unknown to him. Sara would not tell him how he had arrived since she had not witnessed his arrival. But the burden of not knowing it was not as burdensome as he had at first thought of it.

"What is just is," had said she, "no more to think about it".

There had been times when Link had wondered about the why of everything. Since there had been such a long time of simply _nothing_ in the days he had spent outside the island, (for he saw his life as three joined pieces, ere he met her, the island, and all else) the thought of thinking again of the why made him smile inwardly. He dared not tell Sara because he would not know how to explain to her that there are some things of which you cannot sing, just what she would never believe. Unsingable things. He thought that perhaps those might be the most horrible things of all.

But Sara loved to sing, she had a wonderful voice and she knew wonderful songs to sing with it.

Then as the first smoke lifted up from a chimney and they knew that Mabe was just around the corner, like a rain it fell on him.

"What is it?" asked Sara as she saw his face of stone.

"Perhaps I will find her, after all."

"Wouldn't that make you happy?"

"It would."

"Then why do have such a face?"

"I don't know."

A feeling that you cannot share with others. The foam that washed him away from his being awake had suddenly revealed that he was yet in love with Marin. But a mere dream perhaps… it would not be first time that in his dreams he would find her, and it would not be the first time that he would find her, hold her and lose her in the timeless void between sleeping and being awake. And the pain of watching her go was not one he was willing to suffer yet again.

"What if everything is a dream again?" asked he.

"Then what a beautiful dream it is!" said Sara.

"Why do you think so?" asked he.

"Because you came to meet me!"

And they laughed. But Mabe was no more a memory, and at length they came to the first house on sight, the library. They went on until they came to her house. And there had been many times that he had come and stood before her door, and without a knock she had opened it and had greeted him as if naught had ever happened on the quiet island where she dwelt. Then, for a while, they had lain beneath an autumn moon without the chill wind of Hyrule and wrapped in the cool wind of Koholint. But he would always wake ere long, and the pain would come again. He had already shed all the tears he may.

Sara knocked on the door; Link could not muster the valour. Nobody answered.

"Maybe nobody's home?" said she.

"Perhaps," said he and nothing else; but he had never found the house empty, she had always answered, and, out of naught, the smallest of hopes rose in his heart. It was quickly covered again under the snow of his memories. Sara knocked once more.

"And nobody's home."

"Perhaps we should ask about about her?" said Link.

And about her they asked the people they found, and great was his surprise when he learned that none knew who she was. All about Mabe they went, talking to every man and woman they met, yet nobody had heard of young Marin and her beautiful singing voice; though they were not few those who greeted Sara warmly. But Link suddenly found himself filled with a terrible doubt, for it did not seemed possible to him that so beloved a lass as was Marin were not known in her own town.

"This cannot be," he said to Sara. "Marin is known by all in Koholint! It's more likely that I'm at lost and that I was washed ashore to another land."

"Yet you stand on the very island of Koholint," said Sara.

If the dream was never over, then the dream was truly lost. Link felt, not for the last time, the swelling of tears yet again.

"I'm tired,"

But they had not walked for long, and Sara knew that there are many kinds of weariness. She smiled and put her hand on his shoulder

"Then let us rest for the day," she said. "Would you like to stay with me tonight?"

"And have the people of Mabe whisper behind your back the next day?" said Link. "Thank you, but perhaps I should go find an inn."

"There are no inns on Koholint," said Sara. "Or do you forget that you walk on an _island_? And you shouldn't care about what people say. What is just is.

"I never care about what people say about _me_, but I do care about others."

"Me? My friend, my people would never say anything of that kind about me. They know me too well, and they know that my heart is shut to all but one that's no longer with me. Come, my house is not far away from the beach."


	3. Tusk

"Do you know what this is?" asked he.

"No, I don't," said she. "But, whatever it is, it's very powerful."

"Have you felt this way before?"

"Oh, I thought I knew…"

"Do you know that I love you now?"

"Oh, yes I do."

"Love is…"

_You've got the softest lips…_

"You know that I cannot stay," said he.

"Yes, I know," said she.

"It has nothing to do with you or with love…"

"Oh, yes it does. Do not call or come around here. Do not tell…"

"You know that I loved you then!"

"Oh, well… Love is…"

_You've got the softest lips…_

"Love is…"

_The touch of your fingertips…_

"Love is… knowing you won't let go…"

A shadow moved about Sara's house, and Link was quick to notice it. They had been quietly speaking about the mysterious way in which Link had ended again on the shores of Koholint Island, and how the tale of the Wind Fish was naught but an old wives' tale to the people of Mabe. Sara had even sung some songs about these tales and others and was even willing now to teach him how to follow her, even with his voice rather than with his ocarina. Link was amazed at how her cheerfulness could lift such burdens from his heart as the ones he bore at the time, and the memory of that dream (for he had slept during the afternoon, against her liking) still hung from his mind. He quietly asked if she was expecting somebody, even so late at night.

"No," she answered. "But many folk like to come to my house, even at night, whenever they're in for a song or two. Unlike you, the people of Mabe love to sing."

"So if there were anyone lurking about your house it wouldn't be anything strange?" said Link as he looked out from the window. His hand, as if moved by its own will, strayed to the hilt of his sword.

"No, it wouldn't," said she. "So don't feel your sword like that and quit worrying. I wouldn't be surprised if someone knocked right now."

And a knock came through the door. She smiled and rose to open it, even as Link's sight hardened a bit as it met the knob.

"Who is it?" she asked before opening the door.

"Tusk," sternly answered a man's voice. Link felt amazed as he saw Sara's smile drop.

"Oh," she said, almost whispering. "Do come in."

She turned the knob and swung the door open, slowly. A man with curly, dark hair and a beard of many days stood at the entrance, with a stare so cold that even Link could tell why Sara did not seem so fond to greet him.

"Please, do come in," Sara said again, and the man came in. Sara said while she closed the door: "You must be tired. Sit down."

"Thank you," answered the man. "I'm not as tired as one might guess. I'm thirsty, though. Have you anything to spare?"

'How rude,' Link thought. But he also thought that they seemed to have known each other for a while.

"Let me see," she said, almost in a cold voice. "I think I still have some of that wine old man Ulrira gave me for my birthday." She pointed at Link. "This is Link, a cast away."

"_The_ cast away?" asked the man. "Folk have been talking about him all day."

"Really?" said Link sternly, but even if he would not feel too friendly, he had no reason dislike the man too much as he thought at first. "About what?"

"Stuff folk talk about," said Tusk with a sigh. "Nothing that matters. I actually came only to deliver a message to you, Sara." He turned his face at her ere saying: "You're already late, and the old man is not pleased."

"You could try to be nicer," she said. "And you could try not to forget that it's not only _my_ fault that I'm late."

"I didn't come here to debate with you over why. It is as you like to say, it's not important to wonder why."

"Still, one wonders…" she said as she gave him a small cup of wine, staring at him. "This is the very last bit. I'll have to wait till my next birthday."

"Thank you. I'm sure it's delicious."

He drained his cup at once.

"Now I must leave. I understand that perhaps it was not your fault. But that doesn't mean that the Sorcerer will be pleased." He gave the cup back to her and stood up.

"Sara," he said, looking at Link, "perhaps the Cast-away would like to hear you sing…" Tusk seemed to ponder about this for a while. "But I'm sure he has already. How silly of me."

"He has, indeed," said she. "But perhaps he would like to hear you play the guitar?"

"Perhaps," Tusk said, not too keenly. Still, he turned to Link and said: "Would you like to come to my house tomorrow? I am most surely not as good a singer as Sara, but I have other skills in music. And I see that you play the ocarina, that's nice."

"Tusk, I found him lying on the beach just today," Sara said earnestly. "I did not mean for you to speak so soon!"

"I was speaking to him, Sara; therefore, perhaps you could let _him_ speak his mind?"

Link could see how it was as if an unhearable, yet angry, answer was coming from his friend, and he could also see how the man seemed to toss over her all of his disdain with a single sight. A thick blanket of silence fell over the room.

"Forgive me then," said she at length. "I'll leave you alone."

"Do not bother," said Tusk. "I must go now. Would you kindly show Link to my house if he ever wants to visit?"

"Yea," she said.

"Thank you."

He went to the door, opened it and left. The door creaked as the wind closed it.


End file.
